Death, The Strawberry and The Guardian
by despkp
Summary: After being stabbed by Yhwach, Ichigo ends up back in time, but things are not the same as they were...
1. Chapter 1

Synopsis: After he was stabbed by Yhwach, Ichigo has ended up back in time. But, it's not as simple as that...

_Proper authors notes will follow after the story. And yes, i know this story is short, around 2k words. It only covers the very beginning..._

Key: _*Text* _means these are characters internal thoughts.

_"text" _means the character is talking aloud.

'text' within the previous means the character is putting minor emphasis on something, either as a quote or to denote sarcasm etc.

**text ** mean that the character is putting a lot more emphasis on something.

* * *

_*Where am I...? I can't sense anyone anywhere, and I'm just floating in a black void. Did Yhwach do something to me, the bastard? Tsch, I got careless and got stabbed. He must have used his powers to somehow render me into this state...*_

Suddenly, Ichigo feels like he's being pulled by something. Having no control over his body, he floats along, pulled by an invisible thread. Slowly a faint light begins to shine ahead, getting brighter. It starts out as faintly red, growing dark red before slowly becoming orange, then yellow, all the way to an intense blue and finally growing too bright to bear. All of a sudden Ichigo felt a sword in his chest, but it somehow felt different from the sword Yhwach stabbed him with. In fact, somehow it felt familiar... But why would it feel that familiar? It's not like he had a habit of being stabbed. Slashed in fights maybe, but certainly not stabbed. Then the stabbing sensation went away and he fell backwards to the ground. And not just any ground, but the ground in front of his home... Even if he couldn't open his eyes, he knew what the ground before his home felt like, having jumped out of his window so many times as to lose count.

He finally managed to open his eyes, and what he saw stunned him. He saw Rukia, with wound looking like bite marks, he saw the hollow that had attacked his home the night they had met... And he saw a girl with shoulder length red hair... Orihime? No, she looked different, more slender... And vaguely familiar, as if he'd seen her before. And she was wearing a shihakushõ and had a sword. Who was this mysterious shinigami girl? So familiar, yet an utter stranger...

Before he had time to ponder this quandary any more he heard Rukia shout; _"Ichigo! Watch out!". _However, before he could react, the girl blocked the hollows attack. He was going to rush the hollow when Rukia spoke up once more, this time directly at him. _"Who... who are you? Where did you even come from? Did Soul Society send someone already?" _Ichigo looked at her with a very confused look on his face. _"Wh- what are you looking at?" _she asked him. Just as he was about to open his mouth, the mystery girl was slammed by the hollow through the side of the house."_Enough of this nonsense!"_ he shouted as he rushed the hollow and with this twin blades sliced the head clean off the hollow. He turned to talk with Rukia. _"What do you mean 'who am i', huh? I'm Ichigo, Ichigo Kurosaki, remember?". _This time it was Rukia who looked confused. And not just confused, but utterly dazed by his words. _"Ichi... go? Kurosaki Ichigo? But... you can't be...". _Just as he was about to ask what she meant, the mystery girl jumped out of the rubble of the house. _"Did I hear my name? And who are you?",_ she asked of Ichigo. This revelation left Ichigo momentarily stunned. What the heck? The girl was called Ichigo? But, this was **his** home, wasn't it...?

Finally he was snapped out of daze when Rukia lightly kicked his shin. _"Well, don't just stand there 'Mr. Kurosaki', do tell me, tell us, who you are". _At this, the mystery girl turned to look at him. _"Kurosaki? But... I don't recognise you as family, not even extended family. I'm pretty certain there aren't any shinigami in our family tree." _Shaking his head to throw off the last of the daze and to suppress laughter, Ichigo then spoke; _"My name **IS** Ichigo Kurosaki, son of Isshin and Masaki Kurosaki, older brother to Yuzu and Karin.". _At this the mystery girl looked quite shocked. After taking a deep breath, she spoke up; _"But, my name ALSO is Ichigo Kurosaki, __**daughter **__of Isshin and Masaki and the older sister of Yuzu and Karin. But, now that i get a good look at you, I can certainly see a resemblance to dad in you. But... how?"_

This reveal caused him to growl a little and punch a nearby street lamp, denting it a little. _"I don't know how, but this has to be the fault of Yhwach. Damn him!" _This startled the two girls, if you can call some over 150 years old a girl. It was now that the male Ichigo noticed the faint strand flowing his chest into his female counterparts chest. _"Oi, Rukia. Do you know why there's a strand connecting me to her?" _he asked her. She responded snappily _"Why would I know? Do i look like a scientist to you?". _At this he snapped back _"You're the one with most experience about spiritual shit like this.". _It was only now that he saw her wounds. _"Damn it, why didn't i notice you wounds before. Are you all right?" _The shinigami just smiled and said _"I will be, but thank you for concern. Though i did end up giving all of my powers to her, even though i only meant to give half.". "So, just like what happened with me... If things are as they were with me... It probably has something to do with her own shinigami powers...". _At this revelation both of the girls shouted in unison _"WHAT!?"._ _"It's true, you probably have your own powers hidden inside your soul. It was until some time into my 'career' as a substitute shinigami that i learned the truth from dad... DAMN IT!" _Suddenly he bolted into the house. Female Ichigo realised a second later that her male counterpart must have gone back inside to see how dad and the twins were doing and bolted in after him, leaving Rukia standing outside, confused. She didn't realise why the pair had rushed in until they emerged, carrying the unconscious bodied of Isshin, Yuzu and Karin. Female Ichigo pondered aloud"_What do we do, dad's bleeding badly from his back and the twins are badly beaten..."_, with male Ichigo turning to Rukia and asking her _"You know kido right? Can you heal them?", _but the petite shinigami shook her head. _"I do know kido, but like i said earlier, i lost my powers to her...". _At this the eldest daughter of the Kurosaki family fell to her knees and began to weep. Then, out of the shadows stepped a thin figure that was close to two meters tall thanks in part to the strange wooden shoes he wore.

"_My oh my, what happened here? I'm trying to enjoy a nice evening walk and all of sudden there's a huge commotion..." _At the sight of the white and green striped suit and the sound of an unmistakable voice, the Kurosaki son ran up to the man. _"Hat and clogs! You have to help. Please heal them," _he said while pointing towards Ishhin and the girls, _"Rukia lost her powers and can't heal them.". _At the sight of this strange young man who looked almost like a certain Shiba except for the mop of hair on his head was reddish in color instead of black. _"And who might you be, young man?" _Ichigo grabbed a hold of the mans robe and growled _"I'll answer later, but only if you heal Isshin and the girls... Now get to it." _Rukia stared at the man in surprise, for it was Kisuke Urahara, the exiled former captain of the Twelfth division. After Ichigo let go of his lapels Urahara proceeded to heal the injured members of the Kurosaki family.

Turning towards the group of the two Ichigo and Rukia, he noticed the strand between the two namesakes. _"My,this is interesting... Somehow you two are linked together by a soul strand, as if you had the same soul...". _Hearing this, female Ichigo looked confused while her male counterpart looked annoyed, yet having a gleam of understanding in his eyes. _"That... certainly would explain things a little bit. You wanted to know who i am, right? The name's Ichigo Kurosaki, son of Isshin and Masaki. And i have somehow ended up not only back in time, but seemingly in an alternate timeline since she's also Ichigo Kurosaki..." _At this, Urahara began to tap his chin, as if deep in thought.

Then, after a few moments of silence he snapped open his fan and began to flail it in front of his face. _"And what makes you think i should believe any of what you just said? It all seems quite far fetched to me.". _Hearing this the son of Isshin scowled a little and poked Urahara's chest, and said _"Didn't you just say that she and I had the same soul? I don't know how i ended up here, but i bet it has something to do with that rat bastard Yhwach...". _Urahara visibly flinched at the mention of Yhwach, giving Ichigo more fuel to his fire. _"You know him, don't you. And i know about why you got exiled from Soul Society, i know about Aizen and the hogyoku. And this time i won't let you hide it inside of Rukia. I don't know how Aizen found out about it the last time, but he orchestrated Renji and Byakuya to retrieve her..."_

Suddenly, the eldest Kurosaki daughter fainted and Urahara rushed to catch her. When he looked around, the male Ichigo had vanished into thin air. After healing the eldest daughter, he wiped the memories of the other members of the family. He then turned to Rukia. _"I'll help repair the house. If you'd be so kind as to take the girls to their beds. I'll bring the father." _Rukia nodded and picked Yuzu into her arms and carried her away. When she was out of earshot he budged Isshin _"You can stop pretending now. I'm sure you heard everything..." _Isshin laid motionless on the ground, but opened his eyes. _"I did. Do you think the kid was telling the truth? He does look a lot like my nephew Kaien did..." _Urahara nodded and looked serious. _"I'm not quite sure. But, you heard him. He knows too much for him to be working with Aizen. And with the amount of care he showed towards you and the girls, i felt that if i had even jokingly tried to refuse he would have strangled me until i agreed."_

Upon hearing footsteps coming down, Isshin quickly closed his eyes. Rukia picked up Karin and began to make her way back to the bedroom. After she was gone, Isshin opened his eyes again. _"So, what should we do? The boy seemed to know a lot. He even knew about Yhwach, and it sounded like they had fought...". _Urahara dusted his hat before speaking again _"I will have Kuchiki-chan go meet your daughter at school tomorrow and tell her to bring Ichigo to meet me... I want to get to the bottom of this mystery. Now, if you'll excuse me, i did promise to help repair your house so i'll call Tessai and the kids over." _Dialling the number of his shop, he walked off to the side while telling the burly man what had happened. Rukia returned just then, and with a bit of effort managed to hoist the eldest girl on her back and carry her to bed. Tessai arrived a few minutes later and, after Kisuke explained to Rukia that Isshin was heavier than he thought and so had asked Tessai to carry the man in his stead, carried the not-really unconscious Isshin inside before helping Kisuke and the two mod soul kids to repair the wall that the hollow had busted open.

After the repairs were done, he left with Tessai and the kids, leaving Rukia at the Kurosaki household. She had said that she was still worried about Ichigo, and that after what the male Ichigo had said, she had reservations about fully trusting him. She said that she'd try to talk Ichigo into visiting him, but wouldn't guarantee anything.

* * *

Author's notes:

Thank you for reading the first chapter of my sort-of Peggy Sue fic. This chapter of the fic basically covers only the first chapter or so of the manga. However, Ichigo's presence and actions have caused waves.

Also, in future during narration i will refer to the two Ichigo's using the terms Guardian or Protector for the "original" male Ichigo and Strawberry for female Ichigo. If you know even just a bit about the name Ichigo, you know that when spelled using different kanji, it can mean First Guardian or Strawberry. The first is the masculine form and the other is the feminine form.

However, people won't be calling them Guardian and Strawberry, but Ichigo-kun and -chan respectively, as i will be writing the story as if the characters were speaking japanese, unless noted otherwise.

Constructive criticism is always welcome.


	2. Chapter 2

_*What... What just happened? One moment I'm standing in front of our house, then all of a sudden I'm... Well, it looks like a city that was swallowed by ice... It's not just frozen, the buildings are covered in several centimetres worth of the stuff. I don't think I got transported anywhere like before... There was no pulling sensation, just a flash of black, then when I managed to get my eyes open all I saw was blurry grey of the skyscraper covered in ice. Wait... Skyscraper... Ice... No way! Did I somehow end up in her soul world? She is currently using Rukia's powers, but if things are as they were with me, she should have her own set... Did the transfer of Rukia's powers cause this place to freeze over?*_

As he was pondering this, there were other things going on. Urahara and co. had just left, after repairing the house, Rukia had slipped to hiding inside the closet housing the spare futons, Isshin was wondering about the strange young man claiming to be his son from an alternate timeline, Strawberry was laid in her bed still unconscious...

The morning arrived as it always did, with Isshin trying to ambush his daughter when she was coming down for breakfast. _"GOOOOOOD! MOOOOOORRRRNNNIIIIINNNGGG! ICHIGOOOO!" _was heard as Isshin tried to tackle her in the stairs. Ichigo simply jumped over him on a landing while he was crouching to grab her waist. She purposefully kicked him on the rear while coming down. With a realisation, she turned to look at him. _"What happened to your injuries from last night?". _While Isshin knew what she meant, he acted like he didn't know a thing. _"Huh? Injuries? What are you talking about, I'm fit as a fiddle. Don't remember even stubbing my toe...". _As Ichigo looked into the kitchen, she saw that her younger sisters were fine too. But... What about the monster she had fought? And that girl calling herself a shinigami, Rukia, where had she vanished? And what about the boy claiming to be her alternate version... _"Must... must have been a dream then... The wall isn't broken either." _she said halfheartedly. She sat at the table, and smiled at Yuzu. _"Sorry for sleeping in so late. What kind of a big sister lets her little sister be the one to make breakfast."._ Yuzu just smiled back at her and said _"Oh, it's all right Ichi-nee. Besides, dad said he saw you sleepwalking while he was up getting water. Said to let you sleep in a little. If you hadn't gotten up, Karin would have come to wake you.". _Karin looked at her older sister with a mischievous look in her eyes. _"Five more minutes and I would have come and literally kicked you out of bed, lazybones." _Yuzu pouted at her twin. _"That's no way to treat your older sister.". _Ichigo just ruffled both their hairs, causing Karin to look slightly annoyed. _"It's fine. Besides, I got out of bed before there was any need for such tactics.". _Yuzu sighed and gave Ichigo some toast and fried rice, along with a bowl of miso. After she finished her breakfast, Ichigo headed to school.

At the gates she happened to meet up with Yasutora "Chad" Sado, a friend of hers. He was an extremely tall young man, almost two meters high, with a tan looking skin and a very unruly mop of chocolate brown hair. She'd met him when he was being beaten by a bunch of teenage hoodlums and delinquents. She had been walking home from karate practice when she'd noticed them picking on the foreign looking Sado a few years back. She'd given them a through beating and befriended him in the process. _"That's right, you cowards just run to your to tell your mommies you got beaten by a girl!" _she had shouted after them. _"Despicable bunch of losers, ganging up on someone like that... You okay there, big guy?" _she had asked the giant. And from that day on, the two had been good friends. So good in fact, that some of the people at the school had begun to wonder if they were dating, some even spread rumours of it. And while Ichigo admitted that Chad was a good looking boy, he was a friend first and foremost. And besides, she wasn't interested in all of the high school drama that dating would bring. She also had very little time for dating with her helping at the clinic and training at the karate school, even if she were interested.

"_You really should comb that mop of yours more. Might be able to find yourself a girlfriend if you did..." _she jokingly teased him. Running a finger through his hair, Sado just laughed. _"You're one to talk, miss puffer-fish-for-hair. If you combed it flat, you might be able to get a boyfriend.". _She just lightly punched the giant on the arm. _"If my hair is keeping away potential suitors, then good. If the hair is a deal breaker, they would have been jerks anyway.". _And with that said, the friends headed into class and were greeted by friendly teasing from Keigo Asano, who got pulled into a headlock for his trouble. The class erupted into a murmur when miss Ochi, the teacher, was followed by a short young girl with black hair. It was Rukia, the shinigami from last night. Ichigo stared at the petite soul reaper in shock. She hadn't imagined last night's events after all.

"_Okay everyone, calm down. As you noticed, we have a transfer student. This is Kuchiki Rukia. Because she had to move so suddenly because of her fathers work, she doesn't have her books yet. Let's see... Why don't you go sit next to Kurosaki-chan, she'll share her books with you for today. Now then, settle down.". _Ichigo's friends had noticed her staring at Rukia. Tatsuki even asked Ichigo if she knew the girl. _"No, I just... Was shocked for a moment. I thought she was previous patient of our clinic, but she just looks similar. And doesn't have stitches on her hand.". _Rukia settled to the empty desk next to Ichigo. _"A pleasure to meet you. Kurosaki-chan was it? Like miss Ochi said, I don't have any books, so you probably won't mind if I look at yours for the day". _Ichigo eyed the newcomer for half a second, before offering her book to her. Rukia scooted her table next to Ichigo's and whispered _"Didn't even make a scene. You've got nerves of steel." _before settling in for the lesson. At lunch Ichigo invited Rukia to join her and her friends, since she didn't know anyone at the school. Mostly this was just an excuse to keep the strange girl/woman nearby so Ichigo could keep an eye on her for anything suspicious. _"Oh, Kurosaki-chan. Would you mind showing me around the town? I heard your family runs a clinic, so you probably know the neighbourhood quite well. Unless you are needed at the clinic, that is."_. After eyeing her suspiciously, Ichigo agreed as she thought she might get answers about yesterday if she did. Thankfully none of Ichigo's friends wanted to tag along, so she didn't have to make up any excuses to get rid of them.

With a false cheer in her voice, Ichigo asked Rukia _"So, Kuchiki-chan... Where do you want to go first?". _This just caused Rukia to glare at her._"Drop the act. I know you want answers, but I don't have them. I do, however know someone who does. Urahara-san from the candy store. He's a... loose associate of Soul Society and Shinigami visiting the human world often buy supplies from him. Last night he asked me to bring you along to visit him for answers. Follow me." _And with that Rukia began walking off.

A short while later the pair of them arrived at the shop. _"Good day dear customers, what can I... Ah it's Kuchiki-chan and Kurosaki-chan. Good. Tessai, take over the counter while I go talk with our friends.". _The giant man emerged from the back with the day's newspaper in hand and sat behind the counter. _"Ahaha. Don't mind him, he's always serious about his job, and tuesday's are often a quiet day. Now then, if you two would follow me to the back where we can talk in peace.". _Urahara, with his sandals clacking as he walked, made his way to the backroom. Rukia followed right away, but Ichigo hesitated for a second, before deciding that if she wanted answers, she had to talk to this strange man.

"_So then... You probably have a lot of questions. Where do you want to start miss substitute shinigami?" "Huh? What? Substitute... shinigami. I don't remember agreeing to anything like that. And besides, I don't have those powers anymore. Where did they even vanish off to?" "You do have those powers, they're just somewhat 'hidden' as they're inside you, in your soul. Allow me to demonstrate."._ With this said, Urahara gently poked Ichigo on the forehead, dislodging her soul from her body. And with a bright flash of red, white and blue light along with swirls of black reishi the male Ichigo emerged as well. He seemed almost nonplussed by this. _"Hm? Hat-and-clogs? Rukia? Ah, good, I'm in the living world then. From the look of things, we're in your shop.". "You! Where have you been hiding!?" _came a sudden and loud shout from right next to his ear. It was Strawberry. _"My personal guess, inside you soul world. I don't know why, but maybe Urahara does.". "Now, why would I, a humble candy shop owner know...". "Cut the crap. If you didn't know at least something, Rukia wouldn't have brought her here." _he said while pointing at Strawberry. _"And besides, I have other reasons to believe you know at least something, Mr. Exiled Captain of the Twelfth. Now fess up.". _At the mention of his former position, Urahara narrowed his eyes. _"You seem to know a lot about me, 'Kurosaki-san'... How?". _There was a chilling edge to his voice. While it was mostly the same tone as before, Urahara's eyes were sharp like those on a bird of prey. _"You said it yourself. I'm Ichigo Kurosaki-kun, son of Isshin and Masaki Kurosaki. I come from what I can only suspect to be either an alternate timeline or some kind of a parallel reality. Though I would personally use the latter to more so describe Soul Society, Hueco Mundo etc. I was stabbed by Yhwach, leader of the Wandenreich sect of quincies. Next thing I know, I'm pulled through some sort of a tunnel or a void and landed on the yard of our house. Or, I should say the Kurosaki residence of this timeline... Still trying to wrap my head around that...". _Urahara opened his eyes a bit. _"How can I be sure you're telling the truth and aren't just some delusional shinigami or... something else...". "Something else like a creation of Aizen? Which reminds me, you should probably start preparing. With the disappearance of Rukia he probably has began putting his plan into motion. I wonder if he has already killed the Central 46. I would like to prevent his ascension into godhood or near enough. Which is why I will not allow you to place that damn invention of yours inside of Rukia as it's what lead to the mess in the first place. He has his own incomplete version of the thing and wants your version to finish his. When you put Rukia into that gikai that would have turned her human, you also slipped the thing into her soul. When Rukia was due to be executed, Aizen faked his death and then later, during the actual execution managed to steal the thing. I keep calling it a thing because I can't remember what it was called.". "I suppose you mean the hõgyoku. Well, at least now I know for certain that you aren't working for Aizen. Very well, tell your story and we'll go from there. And when I say story, I do mean basically all the details that could relate to Aizen or Yhwach.". _Guardian-Ichigo then sat down opposite of Urahara. He gestured to Strawberry to sit down as well. _"This is going to take a while, so you might as well sit down too sis.". _She stared at him. Why had he called her his sister? With a bit of hesitation, she eventually did sit down however. _"I saw you were wondering why I called you sis. But really, what else can I call you besides some variation on our name? It's really for conveniences sake that I'll refer to you as a sister. While I was stuck inside your soul world, I had the whole night and day to think about things. And one of the things I thought about was our relationship and I came upon the conclusion that we're sort of twins, just separated by a timeline. Now then. Urahara-san. Where should I start? The night I first got shinigami powers from Rukia? From the machinations of Aizen that lead to me having a hollow as a part of me?". "I suppose the simplest way is to cover the events in the order you experienced them. I assume we can interrupt you with questions, should the need arise?". "As long as it's not over something trivial. And I assume that most, if not all of my powers are shared by my twin... do say if things are different in this timeline versus how they were in mine. That goes for all three of you."._

And with that, Ichigo began to explain his life story and other things he knew about.

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Hello hello, Des here. That's Chapter two now up and done. Do let me know if there are any typos etc.

As for proper authors notes, i want to ask you readers a few things. Should i cover the conversation between Ichigo and the rest as it's own chapter? And should i do it as a full chapter, or as chapter 2.5? Or should i cover it as bits and pieces in chapter 3? Or a mix of both? Make a 2.5 then include the more necessary bits in 3 and leave 2.5 as optional? Also, i completely re-wrote this chapter from the ground up as i wasn't satisfied with the original version of it. And no, i don't have that version, i save over it. That's how unsatisfied i was with it.

Don't know when i will publish the next chapter, as this is being published right after i finished writing and reviewing this chapter. I'll try and not take a month to write the next chapter. I'm still figuring out things relating to how to use the site, so i will reply to your reviews here.

I might cover some of the anime fillers, if i can get them to fit the canonical timeline in a way that makes sense. The easiest one to add would probably be the Bount arc as it takes place right between arcs, instead of being shoved on top of an on going arc. As for the light novels and games, i have zero experience with those, but i am interested in reading the novels at least. As for Ichigo's other friends, i do want to include at least Tatsuki in some way. She's my favorite of Ichigo's friends, with Chad coming in second. As for romance, well there was very little of it in the original and there probably won't be much here either. I at least don't have any plans for shipping and relationships. One thing i WILL say is that there will be NO Ichigo-Grimmjow, Ichigo-Ulquiorra or Orihime-Ulquiorra in this fic. Not ever. I don't even get the appeal of such pairing, het or yaoi. And they make no damn sense either.

That's all for now, see you guys next chapter. Des out.

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P.S like i said, i'll try not to take a month to make the next chapter, but we will see how things go with Uni and how inspired i am and what the quality ends up being.


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